The Kingdom of Nobunaga, The Wastelands:-

Harry finally arrived at the gates of the kingdom of Nobunaga along with his two companions at around 9 in the morning (according to the system’s clock).

They had to go through 2 months of gruelling journey, but it would be worth it.

This will be their new home and Harry will develop it to the point that no one in the world can look down upon them.

He will make mortals powerful enough that even immortals have to think twice before attacking them.

But to do that, he first needs to become king.

Harry approached the gate while thinking this.

This place didn’t have an entry fee or anything.

Even people from any surrounding mortal kingdoms rarely ever visited, so there was not much benefit in having an entry fee if people were coming in only once every 2-3 months.

Just as they were about to enter, Harry suddenly found a spear in his face.

“Hey! You three! Where the hell do you think you’re going without paying entry tax, huh?”

This was a city gate patroller who seemed to be speaking Chinese, probably after noticing that there were three people from Wangxiu.

The guy looked European, with a tall and somewhat muscular body and ginger hair.

Harry figured that he must be from Malonia.

Qing and Shin were also intrigued by seeing such a man for the first time.

In Wangxiu all the people looked very similar to the Chinese. 

The greatest differences that could be found were that some regions had people looking more Japanese and some had more Korean-like people.

But everyone was very similar with slanted/smaller looking eyeballs (as seen in those countries), mostly short heights and mainly black or very rare brown hair.

Harry did manage to increase his height with the help of the system, but the other two were still pretty short.

And this came this guy with his very tall height and orangish hair.

“Hey, I’m talking to you three! Stop starin’ and start payin’ if ya wanna go in!”

Harry could only sigh after looking at him.

With a useless king, most people would try to do some illegal thing or the other on the side for extra cash. And for this guy, it was collecting money from anyone who tried coming into the kingdom.

But Harry decided to play along for a while.

“But sir, we’ve fled from Wangxiu and have been on the road for more than a year.

We were weak so we didn’t have much even back then. And whatever we had got used up before we ran away!

Please sir, we really don’t have anything on us. If you don’t let us in, I’m afraid that I and my comrades won’t be able to survive for long outside.”

The guard thought for a bit while studying their faces.

The three of them had decided to cover up most of their skin with light clothing to hide their muscles, so the guard couldn’t make out their strength. (Qi or mana would have helped but the guard didn’t have any of that either.)

His eyes fell on Qing’s face and a grin appeared on his face.

The sort of look that you’d expect from a trash-of-humanity perverted scumbag sort of a person.

Harry sighed in his head.

This was the sort of guy who’d only appear once in the entire novel right before being killed by the protagonist.

“All right, I think I might be able to do something about that. Can’t exactly let people die, am I right?”, said the guard while smiling at Qing.

“Oh thank you, great lord! May the gods bless you with prosperity in life for helping us poor peasants.”, said Harry while looking very grateful on the surface and planning how to kill him.

“No need for that, my friend, for it is my duty to help a fellow man in need. But, I’ll need to talk with that girl over there for some time, if you don’t mind. Think of this as a little favour that you’re doing for me in return for going inside the walls.”, the guard said as he pointed at Qing.

‘Yup, there it is! His true intentions are showing!

And judging by the looks on the faces of Qing and Shin, it’ll be a miracle if this guy gets to live a few more days...’

Harry started laughing in his head.

The siblings were pissed.

How dare he try to get his hands on Qing in such a shameless manner!?

Just then Harry spoke up.

“Sir, you’re being very rude here. That girl is like my sister!

And there is no way in Hell that I’m giving her to a man that’s even half as horrible as you!

You don’t know what you’re messing with here. I recommend that you back of before things get messy!”

He said this out of pity. He knew that if the man continued with what he was doing, the guy would be dead the very next second and Harry couldn’t bear to see that.

But then again, Harry was excited to see this guy suffer a little. So, he still didn’t mention the real situation the guard was in.

“Huuh!? What the f*ck do ya think yer gonna do, eh? Try to attack me? Can’t you see this spear that I-”

Just then, Qing released a bit of her qi in the form of an arrow and destroyed the metal tip of the spear.

“No… No, I can’t…”, said Qing while releasing some killing intent.

Shin also got ready to fight.

“C-c-cultivator!? How!? Weren’t ya guys regular mortals?”

All the guards surrounding them had pure fear written all over their faces since they knew that the drama they caused will definitely cost them their lives.

There was no way for them to know that cultivators would suddenly show up on their doorstep looking like weak mortals.

“Well, we never said that we were mortals, did we?

It’s very rude of you to make such assumptions all on your own…”, said Harry with a somewhat evil-looking grin on his face.

“I’m very, very sorry for any inconvenience that I have caused you!

Actually, there is no such ‘entry tax’ here. It was j-just my evil mind making me steal from people. I swear upon my name that I’ll never do such a thing again! If you want, I’ll even return the money I took, but please let me live!

I could have never imagined that three cultivators like you would suddenly show up here!

Please, great lords! I’ll repent in whatever way you want, but please don’t kill me!!”

The guard who had been trying to bully them suddenly broke into a sob.

Since he was the main culprit, he figured that if he didn’t do some drastic-looking apology, his head will roll.

Harry could only laugh in his head as he looked at the man’s antics.

“Well, buddy, all we want is that you don’t do this any longer. Returning the money or whatever else is completely up to you.

But do remember, that there’s going to be some major changes to this kingdom soon.

Maintain this way of life and you’ll find yourself in deep trouble.”

Harry said this as the guard kept nodding like crazy.

“Ah, and there aren’t three cultivators here. Only those two are the cultivators. I’m a mortal.”

The guard looked at him.

“But that doesn’t mean that...”

Harry said as he crumpled a nearby guard's breastplate like gold foil using his one hand.

“... that you look down on me, understood?”

The nodding of the guard got harder and faster while some others almost fainted on seeing Harry’s strength.

“Oh, and speaking of changes, you might wanna change those pants of yours. You ended up making a bit of a mess…”

Harry spoke as he left the guards behind while pointed at the puddle that had formed under the first guard.

***

Harry’s group went and paid for a room in the local inn to rest and freshen up.

The quality of the inn wasn’t that great along with a major lack of basic amenities as compared to their previous base.

This was more than evident from the look of utter disappointment on Qing’s face.

But it was still better than sleeping in tents as they had been doing for the past 2 months.

After freshening up and resting for an hour, the three of them got ready to leave.

Harry rechecked his bag of precious metals and gems that he had been collecting along the way.

They were going to the Royal Palace of this country and Harry would buy it off its current ruler.

Not the greatest way to become king, but it’ll do for Harry.

He was just looking for a kingdom to start the development of this world and this kingdom, with its useless king, was perfect for it.

Before they had come to this inn, Harry had gone up to a royal knight who was returning to the castle and given him some gems as payment to deliver another small bag of gems to the king.

He had also requested an audience with the king.

Harry knew that if he paid the knight enough aside from giving some precious looking gems as a present for the king, not only would his message be delivered but he’ll also get to meet with the king pretty quickly.

And now, just as they were leaving the inn, they spotted the knight from earlier coming toward them.

“Ah hello, good sirs! It’s good that I met you down here only.

I was just coming to bring you to the royal palace. The king was quite pleased with the little present you had sent along and has decided to meet you!”

So far everything was going according to plan.

They sat together with the knight in a royal-looking carriage that he had brought along with him.

When they reached the royal palace, they noticed that the place was quite poorly maintained.

And in a few minutes, they were sitting before the king.

“So, my dear guests, what brings you to my kingdom, may I ask?”

Said the meatball of a king.

The guy looked like he did nothing but eat and sleep the whole day. And, hearing the voices that were coming from his room, the only “exercise” he did would involve a lot of women raising their legs while he exercised his hip joints…

‘How is this guy even alive right now!?

Medically speaking, I can tell even though I’m no doctor, this guy should be dead from obesity!’

Harry wondered when he saw the black-haired king before replying.

“Your majesty, I’ll be honest with you.

I have seen the condition of your kingdom and concluded that it is horribly mismanaged.

You, who is the king, look much, much healthier than the majority of your citizens, some of who are so thin that their ribs are showing.

Do you know about this?”

“Look, dear sir, I’m the king of this kingdom, so I am quite grateful that you have given me this piece of information.

However, I find nothing wrong with the situation. Such people exist in every country and kingdom.

Even the Wangxiu continent has them. And technically, the people settled in the Wastelands originally belonged to that group back in their old regions.

As for my own condition, I find that I am living quite a normal life, as a king should live. I find that there’s barely anything wrong there.”

Harry was left wide-eyed at the king’s thinking.

‘From what I see, there is barely anything right about this place!’

“Your majesty, say whatever you may, I find this country to be on the verge of collapsing!

And I feel like I’m the only one who can save it!”

“Oh, and how is it that you will ‘save’ this country, may I ask?”

The king inquired with an amused expression.

“Well, your majesty, I’ll be blunt with you.

I wish to buy this country from you.”, declared Harry.

“Oh! You wish to ‘buy’ this kingdom from me?

Those are some very bold words I hear…

I don’t think that no one would have ever done such a thing anywhere on Etheldor, at least not as openly as you are.”

Harry simply gave a confident-looking smile as a reply.

“Your majesty, I feel that if something hasn’t been done before, why shouldn’t I be the one to do it first? Isn’t that how countries develop and prosper?

One has to take the first step before they can start walking, right?

In much the same way, if I can buy a kingdom, why shouldn’t I buy one?”

“You sound like quite the ambitious man! I really like that!

But are you sure that you have the capital to buy such a large country?

From what I hear, you fled from Wangxiu without any money, is that right?”

“Oh, no, no, your majesty, that was a lie I had to make up for the guards.

We saw some people enter without paying anything but saw that the guards were charging us with an entry tax. So, I had to lie a little.

But don’t you worry, your majesty, I have more than enough money to buy the position of this country’s king from you.”

Harry said this as he took out a few large bags that he had carried into the room and handed them to the king.

The king’s eyes gleamed as he saw the countless precious gems and metals stuffed in each bag.

‘Good, good, let the greed flow through you…

Give in to your temptation and sell me your country!’, thought Harry as he continued to maintain his expression in front of the king.

“Young man, I must say, after looking at the price you are offering, I am quite tempted to agree to your offer.”, said the king as he kept his eyes on the bags that could let him live luxuriously for a lifetime.

“I say, let’s move this discussion to a better place, shall we?”

“Why of course, your majesty, as you wish…”, said Harry with a smile.